Government Is Desperate To Sell Its 40 Maseratis

Papua New Guinea's government bought a fleet of 40Maserati Quattroportesedans in 2018, to try and impress politicians at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Ultimately, the plan backfired spectacularly. Considering that Papua New Guinea is one of the poorest countries in APEC, the government spending millions of dollars onlavish Italian limosto chauffeur world leaders did not go down too well.

事实上,新Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern and other world leaders refused to be driven in them. Each Maserati reportedly cost over K500,000 ($142,000) to import. In total, the government spent K20m ($5.7 million) importing the 40 luxury sedans.

According toThe Guardian, the Maseratis were purchased from a dealer in Sri Lanka and were flown over by a jumbo jet. ThreeBentley Flying Spurcars were also purchased for the fleet.

After the summit, APEC minister Justin Tkatchenko was confident the luxury cars would "sell like hot-cakes" to recoup the costs, despite the country's poverty, poorly maintained roads, and high crime rate. However, three years later a grand total of two out of the 43 cars that were bought for the summit have been sold, including one Maserati and one Bentley. A third vehicle was reportedly gifted to the governor-general.